Who You Think I Am

In this novel of identity, obsession, and our slippery grip on reality, 48-year-old Claire Millecam is so desperate for news of casually cruel, here-again-gone-again lover Joe that she constructs a false identity as the much younger Claire Antunes and friends Joe's sometimes roommate Christophe on Facebook. Her interest soon turns to Christophe himself, and it doesn't end well, as the police recordings and therapist's interviews opening the book suggest. Soon, however, other material appears, including a therapist's report, a novel fragment, and the draft of a letter, all of which call into question our initial understanding of what has happened to Claire. Do novelists construct avatars to clarify and shroud the truth simultaneously? Do we all? Prix Femina award winner Laurens (In His Arms) deftly investigates these questions, but the real engine of the narrative is Claire's dangerous energy and uncomfortable articulation of sexual conflict and inequality.